Palliative care a case study and reflections on some spiritual issues

There is no set, agreed upon definition for spirituality; definitions seem to vary by discipline.

By the year70 million Americans will reach the age of 65 1. Culture plays an unmistakably important role in the experience of life-threatening illness.

Spirituality is personal, but it is also rooted in being connected with others and with the world around you; it often embraces the concept of searching and moving forward in the direction of meaning, purpose, and direction for your life 13 These guidelines delineate eight domains that are addressed through the provision of palliative care; the fifth domain gives attention to spiritual, religious and existential aspects of care.

Clinicians may ask how patients have coped with challenging times in the past, and whether spirituality or religious beliefs were part of what helped them to cope. Figure 2 Total pain. As delivery models of health care have evolved, conversations about preferences and goals at end of life have become more culturally acceptable.

But often times, exploration of spiritual beliefs is a less formal process that can occur as part of any patient encounter. Conversely, those who employ negative religious coping may be more likely to view illness as punishment or divine retribution.

The Clinical Practice Guidelines for Quality Palliative Care have identified eight domains that are integral to palliative care as a discipline.

Conversely, spiritual concerns can be a source of distress for patients if they see their illness as punishment for a life poorly lived.

When surveyed, the majority of Americans state that their preference is to die at home, yet for many this goal is not met and end of life care is provided in an institution. Over the years, numerous studies have established the importance of religion, spirituality and religious coping in the context of serious illness.

Therefore, the assumption that positive coping methods are necessarily adaptive and negative religious coping maladaptive, can lead to a narrow view of religious coping.

What differs may be how each individual goes about accomplishing these tasks 28 As with other dimensions of whole-person care, there is a reasonable expectation that providers have at least basic language to assess the spiritual needs of a patient. In many ways this makes end of life care more complicated, fraught with decisions about what interventions are appropriate and when to withhold or withdraw care.

While we are often consulted to manage physical symptoms, that is only part of our work. The culture of death changed dramatically during the 20th century.

Results showed that better or more positive religious coping was related to mechanisms such as religious forgiveness and seeking support, while poorer adjustments were associated with spiritual discontent and reprisal As we work on building relationships, both with our patients and their care team, we are often able to help facilitate communication that allows for greater understanding and fulfillment of the goals of care as expressed by those we care for.

Having a clinician who is open to faith and to engaging in spiritual discussions can often serve to put patients at ease, allowing them to explore the challenges they face as they consider their mortality. In the Coping with Cancer Study, patients with a diagnosis of advanced cancer and prognosis of less than 1 year were interviewed.

With the advances in medical science, death is seen less as a natural part of life and more as something to be kept at bay for as long as possible.Request PDF on ResearchGate | Palliative care: A case study and reflections on some spiritual issues | Being aware of notions of spirituality and ethnicity are perhaps at no time as important in.

Palliative care: a case study and reflections on some spiritual issues Palliative care: a case study and reflections on some spiritual issues Jillian Ireland.

Author of case study: VJ Periyakoil, MD. Case history: Mr. Russell Halbert was a year-old male with a one hundred pack year history of smoking, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).

The objective of this study was to identify published literature that reports evidence of the spiritual needs of palliative care patients. The search strategy was based on online bibliographic sources supplemented by a wider search of the gray literature, reference lists of landmark articles, topic-specific editions of journals, selected subject-specific.

Case Reflections without Reflections on the Care of a Patient with Palliative Care Needs Psychosocial care c.

Spiritual care d. Issues of communication with patient and family e. Ethical issues if present This reflection part (Your learning) should be of minimum words.

It can be more, but the. Spiritual Palliative Care is a professional, private, individually personalised service that provides spiritual and emotional support to the dying and their loved ones.

Some people know of this work as that of a death doula or death midwife.